Roy Zuckerberg

Roy Zuckerberg is currently a Senior Director of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. after stepping down as Vice Chairman of the Firm, a member of the Executive Committee, and head of the Equities Division in November of 1998. He joined the firm in 1967 and in 1976 became a General Partner. In 2001, he created a private investment company, Samson Investment Partners. Roy is former Chairman of the Board of Trustees and presently a member of the Executive Committee of Northwell Health, formerly North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, Inc. Roy is past Chairman of the Board of Governors of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel where he served from 2004 to 2012. Roy is also Honorary Chairman of the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research. The Zuckerberg Institute, now in its eleventh year of operation leads interdisciplinary, cutting-edge research and graduate education in water sciences, aimed at improving human well-being in drylands through technologies and policies for sustainable use of water resources. In 2009, he received an honorary doctoral degree from Ben-Gurion University. A Trustee of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and the New York Historical Society, Roy is a Director of the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties. Roy served on the Board of Trustees of the Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises, Inc. from 1999 to 2012. Roy chaired the investment committee of the University of Massachusetts Foundation from 2000 to 2009 and supports the Roy J. Zuckerberg Endowed Leadership Chair. The University of Massachusetts has honored him with their Distinguished Alumni Award, a doctor of humane letters and the President’s Medal. Roy received a B.S. from Lowell Technological Institute (now U Mass) in 1958. In the spring of 2017, “The Roy J. Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences” was named at the University of Massachusetts.

Stephen Solender

Stephen Solender is a longtime leader of the nonprofit community, with key roles as Executive Vice President of UJA-Federation of NY, President and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America and Executive Vice President of the 9/11-United Services Group. Solender was born in New York City to Sanford and Ethel (Klonick) Solender. His father Sanford was Executive Vice President of the Federation of New York from 1970-1981. Both Stephen and Sanford emulated Sanford’s father Samuel who, for nearly thirty years served as executive director of the Washington Heights-Inwood YM-YWHA in their leadership within the Jewish community. Solender grew up in Mt. Vernon, NY and like his father and grandfather before him, graduated from Columbia University. Stephen majored in sociology and chose social work as a profession graduating from the Columbia University School of Social Work in 1962. Solender worked for the Jewish Community Centers of Chicago from 1962 to 1969, serving as a teen worker, program director and branch director. In 1969, he moved to Geneva, Switzerland, where he worked for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee as Director of Youth Services, Community Centers and Summer Camps. Later he directed services to Jews in Muslim countries and staffed the European Council of Jewish Communities. He served as President of the English-Speaking Jewish Community of Geneva from 1973-5. In 1975, Stephen returned to the United States to become Director of Social Planning and Budgeting at the Associated Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, and became President in 1979. In 1986, Solender moved to New York, succeeding William Kahn as Executive Vice President of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. In partnership with Ernest Michel of UJA of New York, he supervised the merger of the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York and the Federation into UJA-Federation of New York, the largest local Jewish Federation in North America and one of the country’s largest private philanthropies. He served as the organization’s Executive Vice President for thirteen years, from 1986 to 1999. UJA-Federation of NY honored Solender with its Keeper of the Flame Award in 2002. Solender, in 1988, was the founding President of the Human Services Council of New York (HSC) the umbrella group uniting virtually all-voluntary human services agencies in New York. Solender played a key role in the formation of the United Jewish Communities in 1999, created through a merger of the national offices of the Council of Jewish Federations, the United Israel Appeal, and the United Jewish Appeal. UJC became the central funding and social service system for the American Jewish community; Solender was selected as its first President and CEO and serves now as its President Emeritus. This organization is now known as the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA). After his retirement from JFNA in 2002, Solender became the second Executive Vice President (succeeding Robert Hurst) of the 9/11-United Services Group, which was tasked with supervising the distribution of more than $700 million that had been donated to voluntary agencies in New York after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. After overseeing the distribution of these funds to agencies and some 80,000 clients, and having established protocols for response to disasters by voluntary agencies, Solender with key ay leaders closed down that agency in 2004. In 2004, Solender began work as consultant to the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, which was slated to be built on the site of the Warsaw Ghetto. He subsequently became co-president (with Sigmund Rolat) of the American Friends of the Museum. His leadership was celebrated in a special exhibition about the development of the prize-winning museum at its opening in 2013. In 2003, The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion awarded the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters to Solender. He joined the board of the Jewish Braille Institute in 2001 and served for over a decade as its vice president. An issue of the Journal of Jewish Communal Service was dedicated to Solender in 2002. He served as chairman of the International Conference of Jewish Communal Service and was a founder and vice chairman of Or Zarua Synagogue in New York City, Solender was awarded the John Jay Award recognizing outstanding professional achievement by Columbia College in 2000, He has been involved with other organizations, serving on boards and committees for the World Council of Jewish Communal Service, Brandeis University, Yeshiva University, the Baltimore Institute for Jewish Communal Service and the United Hospital Fund, among others. Solender married the former Elsa Adelman, a journalist, editor and author, in 1960. They reside in New York and have two sons, Michael and Daniel (m. Lynne Whitman) and seven grandchildren.

Elizabeth McCormack

Described as “the very soul of philanthropy,” Elizabeth McCormack is a longtime philanthropic advisor to the Rockefeller family. McCormack was a nun for three decades, then earned her doctorate in philosophy from Fordham University and served as president of Manhattanville College.  She was a founder of the Partnership for Palliative Care, which has helped transform that field into an integral part of health care. She remains the organization’s chair. Her past and current board memberships include Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Atlantic Philanthropies, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and colleges large and small.  McCormack, born in 1922, has received honorary degrees from distinguished schools including Brandeis, Princeton, and the American University of Paris.

John G. Heimann

John G. Heimann, a longtime leader in the investment banking field, was the US Comptroller of the Currency from 1977 to 1981, appointed after serving as New York State’s Supervisor of Banking and the state’s Commissioner of Housing and Community Development.

From 1984 to February 2003, Heimann was employed by Merrill Lynch & Co in various capacities, most recently serving as Chairman of that firm’s global financial institutions practice.  He was the founding partner of Warburg Pincus and Co-Chairman of Warburg Paribas Becker.

His governmental roles include a term as acting chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and as the first chairman of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. In New York State, he has served as a Chairman of the Committee on Transnational Banking Institutions; Chairman of the Executive Advisory Commission on Insurance Industry Regulation Reform; and Special Advisor to the Governor on Temporary Commission on Banking, Insurance, and Financial Reform.

Presently he is a director and treasurer of the Urban Assembly and a director of Accion, InterAudi Bank, New Smith Capital, the American Ditchley Foundation, the Chatham House Foundation and the Essential Capital Consortium of Deutsche Bank. He serves on the executive committee of the French American Foundation, as a trustee of the Nasher Sculpture Center, and as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Group of Thirty.

He has lectured widely, including at Harvard University, Yale University, the University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University and New York University, and was named a distinguished Lecturer for Columbia’s School of Internal Affairs. He also received the Chancellor’s Medal from Syracuse University.

In recognition of his service, Heimann was named Housing Man of the Year by the National Housing Conference, was awarded a distinguished-service key from the Bank Administration Institute and received the Alexander Hamilton Award from the Department of the Treasury. He accepted the Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians & Jews and the Pacesetter Award from the National Association of Bank Women, Inc.

Heimann graduated from Syracuse University with a B.A. in Economics, and received a Doctor of Laws from St. Michael’s College in Vermont.

Vartan Gregorian

One of America’s most influential scholars, Vartan Gregorian is the 12th president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Before his current position, Gregorian served as president of Brown University. His wide-ranging influences on academia and the arts also include serving as founding dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, and later the university’s provost, and then as president of the New York Public Library. Gregorian, born in 1934, is the author of “The Road to Home: My Life And Times;” “Islam: A Mosaic, Not A Monolith;” and “The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan, 1880-1946.” He serves on several boards including the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, and has also served on the boards of the J. Paul Getty Trust, Human Rights Watch, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gregorian’s honors include the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the National Humanities Medal and the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civil award.

David Dinkins

David Norman Dinkins served as NYS Assemblyman, President of the NYC Board of Elections, City Clerk and Manhattan Borough President before being elected 106^th Mayor of the City of New York in 1989. As the first (and only) African American Mayor of NYC, major successes of note under his administration include: “Safe Streets, Safe City: Cops and Kids”; the revitalization of Times Square as we have come to know it; an unprecedented agreement keeping the US Open Tennis Championships in New York City for 99 years – a contract that continues to bring more financial influx to New York City than the Yankees, Mets, Knicks and Rangers COMBINED – comparable to having the Super Bowl in New York for two weeks every year! The Dinkins administration also created Fashion Week, Restaurant Week, and Broadway on Broadway, which have all continued to thrive for decades, attracting international attention and tremendous revenue to the city each year. Mayor Dinkins joined Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) as a Professor in the Practice of Urban Public Policy in 1994.  He has hosted the David N. Dinkins Leadership & Public Policy Forum for 20 years which welcomed Congressman John Lewis as Keynote Speaker in 2017.   2015 was a notable year for Mayor Dinkins: the landmarked, Centre Street hub of New York City Government was renamed as the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building; the David N. Dinkins Professorship Chair in the Practice of Urban & Public Affairs at SIPA (which was established in 2003) announced its inaugural professor, Michael A Nutter, 98^th Mayor of Philadelphia; and the Columbia University Libraries and Rare Books opened the David N. Dinkins Archives and Oral History Project. Mayor Dinkins is an active participant on numerous organizational boards – with his primary focus on youth, he also maintains regular engagements as a featured speaker or award recipient around the country.  In 2013, Mayor Dinkins became a first time author when, A Mayor’s Life: Governing New York’s Gorgeous Mosaic, was published.  A memoir which chronicles the life of this devoted public servant as a New Yorker who remains in love with his city. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, on July 10, 1927, David Dinkins graduated with honors from Howard University in 1950 with a B.S. in mathematics and an LLB from Brooklyn Law School in 1956.  He is a recipient of The Congressional Gold Medal for his service as a Montford Point Marine in the United States Marine Corps, during World War II.  David N. Dinkins resides in New York City with his wife of 63 years, Joyce Burrows Dinkins.

Clive Davis

As the record industry’s most innovative and influential executive, Clive Davis has had a profound effect on the world of music.  In the first phase of his career, Davis was General Counsel of Columbia Records and was appointed Vice President and General Manager in 1966.  In 1967 he was named President of the company and personally signed Janis Joplin’s Big Brother and The Holding Company to Columbia. After that, he was directly responsible for the signing of many more landmark artists in the rock field, among them Blood, Sweat & Tears, Chicago, Santana, Loggins & Messina, Laura Nyro, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith and Earth, Wind and Fire. Davis left Columbia Records in May 1973 and, after writing the book, Clive: Inside The Record Business, a national best-seller in both hard cover and paperback, he founded with Columbia Pictures, Arista Records in the fall of 1974. Only three months after the company opened its doors Barry Manilow’s smash hit “Mandy”, found by and named by Davis, went straight to #1.Under Davis’ leadership, Arista launched the careers of Whitney Houston, Barry Manilow, Patti Smith, Kenny G and Sarah McLachlan. The label also attracted such important artists as Aretha Franklin, The Grateful Dead, The Kinks, Lou Reed, Eurythmics, Dionne Warwick, Hall & Oates, and Carly Simon.Davis founded Arista Nashville in 1988 and working with Nashville’s Tim Dubois, it quickly became the talk of the industry with the discovery of  Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn and Brad Paisley. With over 150 major industry awards Arista Nashville set the pace for country music.Analogous to his agreement with Gamble & Huff in the seventies, Davis made his agreement with L.A. Reid and Babyface to form LaFace Records in October 1989. During this time, LaFace built an outstanding roster of hitmaking artists including TLC, Toni Braxton, Usher, OutKast, and Pink.  In 1994, Davis and producer/entrepreneur Sean “Puffy” Combs entered into a 50/50 joint venture that resulted in the creation of Bad Boy Records with an artist roster that grew to include Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans, Mase and of course Puffy Combs. Along with LaFace Records, Bad Boy became the most successful Hip-Hop and Rap label of the ’90s.Throughout the ‘90s, Arista staked its place in music history time and time again.  The 9x Grammy winning album, Supernatural, sold over 26 million copies worldwide, produced the #1 hits “Smooth” and “Maria Maria”, marked the reunion of Carlos Santana and Clive Davis and the two accepted, as producers, the Grammy for Best Album of The Year.Also, in 2000, Clive Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the only non-performer. Almost simultaneously, it was announced that he would be the recipient of the Trustees Lifetime Achievement award by NARAS at the Grammy Awards.In August 2000, Clive Davis began a new phase in his career, announcing the formation of J Records.  The label quickly became the buzz of the industry, beginning with Alicia Keys whose debut album Songs In A Minor sold over 10 million copies and swept the Grammys. J Records emerged as a dominant music force with chart topping albums by Maroon 5, Annie Lennox, Luther Vandross, Rod Stewart (whose five Great American Songbook Volumes returned him to the top of the charts selling over 22 million copies worldwide with all five volumes being co-produced by Davis), and Jennifer Hudson.Davis’ passion for music, though, is matched by a passion for helping his fellow man. The recipient of many Humanitarian honors from organizations such as the T.J. Martell Foundation, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Cancer Society, Davis began his tireless efforts in the battle against AIDS in 1985.  And in 1998, Clive Davis was bestowed the Humanitarian Award from the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).In 2002, Mary Schmidt Campbell, dean of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, and Clive Davis, announced a $5 million gift by Davis to the School for the creation of a new Department of Recorded Music.In the year 2008, Clive Davis was appointed Chief Creative Officer for all of Sony Music Entertainment, a change in operational responsibility but an expansion of the artists he would now creatively be responsible for.In the year 2010, NARAS named the prestigious state of the art theater inside the Grammy Museum the “Clive Davis Theater”.  And in the year 2011, New York University awarded an Honorary PhD of Fine Arts to Clive Davis.  Also in 2011, Davis made an additional gift of $5 million to the Tisch School, expanding the Department of Recorded Music into an Institute.In February 2013, Simon and Schuster published Davis’ autobiography The Soundtrack of My Life.  It entered The New York Times’ Non-Fiction Best Seller list at #2 and remained in its top ten for nine consecutive weeks.  The book was published as a paperback in November, 2013.Born in Brooklyn, New York, Clive Davis was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of New York University (1953), where he received his B.A. magna cum laude and he graduated with honors from Harvard Law School (1956).

Marilyn Berger

Marilyn Berger has been a journalist, biographer and television correspondent for over 40 years, during which time she has covered some of the most memorable news stories from around the world. She was the diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Post during the Kissinger years, worked for NBC and ABC and also anchored various programs on public television. She has written for New York Magazine and The New Yorker and, more recently, Berger has written major obituaries for The New York Times including those of Ronald Reagan, Boris Yeltsin, Yitzhak Rabin, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, George Abbott and Irving Berlin among many others. At age 73, Berger became a first-time mother, adopting a young Ethiopian boy she met while traveling in Ethiopia to research “This is a Soul,” a book about Rick Hodes, an American-born doctor who has spent much of his life treating people at Mother Theresa’s Addis Ababa clinic and wherever he finds those in need (and they do find him) all over Ethiopia.

Barbara and Donald Tober

Barbara Tober is President of Acronym, Inc., a firm which invests in art related projects.  These have included THE GUILD Publishing Company, a publisher of sourcebooks for design professionals to help artists find greater markets for their work, and GUILD.com, an ecommerce and catalog company that connects artists and their work directly to consumers. Acronym, Inc. also funds educational arts projects for children nationwide such as the successful Quilts Across America.  Mrs. Tober serves on the Advisory Board of CODAworx, a global online community that showcases and celebrates design projects featuring commissioned artwork.  After 15 years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, Mrs. Tober now serves as Chairman Emerita.  She also chairs the Museum’s International Council. Prior to her career in the world of the arts and craftsmanship, she spent over four decades in the corporate advertising and magazine world, the majority of which was at Conde Nast Publications where she was Editor-in-Chief of BRIDE’S Magazine for 30 years. A prolific author/editor, Mrs. Tober is the author of THE BRIDE: A Celebration (Harry N. Abrams, publisher), and produced during her years at BRIDE’S over a dozen wedding standards, including The BRIDE’S Book of Etiquette, Questions and Answers About Love and Sex, Wedding Nightmares, and a host of “how-to” books, cassettes, etc. on weddings and marriage. Most recently, her articles include “Crafts and the Passion of Making,” published in Dutchess Magazine, 1995. “The Nobility of Beauty” is her introduction to the book OBJECT LESSONS, published in 2001. Barbara Tober appeared as a spokesperson for the $32 billion wedding industry on numerous television and radio talk shows, and has been profiled and quoted extensively in the print media. Her credits include The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Joan Rivers, Sally Jessy Raphael, Jenny Jones, Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, CNN’s Sonya Show, ABC’s Entertainment Tonight, The New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, People Magazine, U.S.News and World Report, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, Manhattan, Inc., Architectural Digest, Gotham Magazine and many others. She has been listed in Who’s Who for over five decades, and has served on the Boards of a number of organizations, such as the Women’s Forum, International Furnishings and Design Association (IFDA), which gave her their award for excellence in 1992, and The Fashion Group International, where she was President in 1991. She has been a board member of the Women’s Leadership Initiative at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and has been a member of the Board of Sugar Foods Corporation for the past 38 years. Other awards include Publicolor, 2017; The New Jewish Home ‘8 Over 80’ Award, 2017; Career Transition for Dancers, 2016; LOOT Award for Contemporary Art Jewelry, Museum of Arts and Design, 2015; Visionary Honoree, Lighthouse Guild, 2014; Police Athletic League’s Woman of the Year, 2013; Girl Scouts Lifetime Achievement Award, 2011; American Cancer Society Humanitarian Award, 2010; Lifetime Achievement Award Museum of Arts and Design, 2009; Pratt Legends Award for Philanthropy, 2006; BIZBash Hall of Fame — New York City Civic Champion, 2004; Distinguished Women of Northwood University, 1997; American Craft Museum Award, 1993; New York Women in Communications “60 Years of Success” Award, 1984; UJA Federation Award, Bridal Division,1988; and the Traphagen School Diamond Jubilee Alumni Award, 1983 and 1975. Mrs. Tober has traveled extensively throughout the world, and collects works of art by established as well as emerging artists. Her background in design (Traphagen School of Fashion, Fashion Institute of Technology, and New York School of Interior Design) has served her well in her chosen fields. She is married to Donald G. Tober, Chairman of Sugar Foods Corporation, a food manufacturing and marketing company.  She is a member of the Metropolitan Club, Cosmopolitan Club and the Century Association.

Donald G. Tober is Chairman of Sugar Foods Corporation, which manufactures, packages and markets food products to both the retail and foodservice industries. Sugar Foods’ widely varied product list includes Fresh Gourmet croutons and other crunchy salad toppings, the N’Joy line of non-dairy creamers and sugar canisters, packaged condiments and many other specialty food products. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School, Mr. Tober practiced law in New York City and then joined Sugar Foods Corporation. Mr. Tober is a former Chairman of the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association, Vice Chairman of the Culinary Institute of America and is presently a board member of the Educational Foundation of the National Restaurant Association.  As Trustee Emeritus of the Culinary Institute of America, he has expanded his involvement in several associations that serve to elevate the quality and appreciation of food and wine in the United States such as the Commanderie de Bordeaux and the Chevaliers du Tastevin.  He is also a co-founder and member of the Executive Committee of the City Meals-on-Wheels program in New York City. His contributions and memberships span a broad range of interests beyond food-oriented activities.  He serves on the boards of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, the Manhattan Institute, the National Dance Institute with Jacques d’Amboise, the American Austrian Foundation for Medical Scholarship, the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (RID) and is a long time supporter of Lincoln Center, the Philodoroi Society of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Arts and Design, and The Juilliard School. He is a member of the Lotos and University Clubs in New York City; and the Mashomack and Tamarack Clubs in Dutchess County and lives in New York with his wife, Barbara.